Player Character Deaths! (GM Tips w/ Matt Mercer) 

*PC dies* *Player writes "Jr." next to their name on the character sheet* "I'VE COME TO AVENGE MY FATHER"

My first ever character death, his last words were, "Well, shit." Before a stone golem pounded him into mulch.

*character dies* *rolls dice for funeral arrangement* *rolls 1* *the funeral has failed*

Matt Mercer: "Allow the Player to have some last words, before they die." PC's dying words: "Resurrect me...."

I had a PC die, and one of the other players, on his own, grabbed up the PCs sword and swore vengeance for his dead comrade and he carried the sword in order to end the killer with his friend's weapon. It was pretty epic.

Just had a cleric get swallowed by a dragon. "I hope I give you indigestion!" Were her final words.

“Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice i am willing to make!” - my DM

Pc: walks off cliff because they wanted to see what would happen Dm: actually lets them kill themselves off Pc: wait what?

In my first campaign, the first death happened to one of our bards. He touched a horse's balls and promptly got bashed in the skull and failed his saving throws. It was a fitting death for him.

There's a system I like to implement in my games called "Final Stand". When a character is knocked to 0 HP, I give them a choice (provided it isn't instantaneous death, like a nuke), either submit and fall unconcious, with a chance to stabilize yourself, or defy death and make a final stand. In a final stand, you are given the following: 1 action type of your choice (reaction, main action, bonus action) Half your movement speed And one free spell slot of 5th level or lower What you do with this is up to you, you can fire one last fire ball, you can make one last sword swing, you can do anything you want for one last turn to go out in a blaze of glory. However, keep in mind, if you choose this, you *will* die. It doesn't matter if you get healed during your final stand, you will still die. Final Stand is the choice of letting your character go out with a bang. Now, some DMs will say that that's OP, and frankly, I don't care. I have fun with it, my players have fun with it, and as long as I and my players keep having fun with it, I'll keep using it

PC's last words: " Delete my browser history! " The Party: " WTF is a Browser History?! "

Player character has just died, a stunned silence. Then in chorus the surviving adventures shout " I loot the body!" /sigh...

GM: "OK he's dead bad luck, time to create a new character" Player: "But .... " GM: "What Race !"

use the name of a fallen PC character as a warcry? ... "LEEROOOOOYYYY JENKIIINS!!!!"

Character Death in DnD: A tragedy, a possible fight with the GM, all around difficult to work with Character death in Call of Cthulhu: Welp, saw that coming

"Give them their finals words to inspire their party" I nat 1 slipped in oil and was lit on fire by a goblin. A party member decided to light a bigger fire to kill the goblins. He burned the forest down and they left my unconscious body there as they ran. They did not want to hear my last words...

Wait Matt, "Player death is indeed a real possibility?" Um... don't you mean Player Character death... I really hope so. :p

Saddest death I ever had to describe was my friend's fighter getting blown apart by a black powder chain reaction. He was tough, survived so many other deadly attacks, and was the backbone and defacto leader. A bear of a man but an honorable and fun individual to his friends, but a terror to his enemies. He was a champion of the people, and a bane to their foes, as well as a true gentleman. The hobgoblin general of the BBEG was nearly at their mercy, cornered in his stronghold. The party had to fight through the fort to get to him though, and they were prepared to siege the place if need be. Waves of enemies and rooms filled with ambushes, traps, and pitfalls led to the final chambers; the powder storage room. There he was, the hobgoblin general with a contingent of high guards and mercenaries, all armed with explosive impliments. The party went hard in this fight, nearly losing several to the blasts. But the warrior knew he needed to get in close and end the general ASAP, so he cut in close and laid into him. A few turns later, and a fumble on the general's part saw a bottle of alchemist fire light the room ablaze. They all knew this was bad, and they needed to go, fast. But the way was blocked by the flames and explosions for the warrior and the hobgoblin. With a heavy heart he called for his friends to run, to escape as fast as they could. They relented at first, trying to douse the flames, but they only grew back in strength with more explosions and soon the room and fort were starting to buckle. With a final smile and a tearful nod, the warrior laid into the general again as his friends fled, needing to drag the warrior's love interest away lest she die as well. The whole keep collapsed as they escaped, the warrior and the general impaling one another on their weapons. This hobgoblin, who had been a menace to them for going on a year had a moment of respect for his long time enemy, laughing with him as they both were crushed under the tons of stonework. And then, all was silent. The party found their ally with help from some magic, his body bloodied and his armor crushed by stone. But he died with a smile on his face, content in knowing that his friends were safe, and one less evil was free to roam and sow terror. He was a hero, and he is still remembered in that world; Nidhogg, son of Grisall, child of the hill dwelling nomads, champion of the people, hero of Faerun, and a friend who will never be forgotten. That is how a death should be, and that is how my first ever PC died. Tears were legitimately shed, and a character with nearly a year of development and growth, with great deeds and songs written of his and his allies' accomplishments passed as a warrior should; with a sword in his hand, fighting a foe who was worthy of his steel.

Characters enter room “It’s high noon” Party all die

Matt: “Go out together” *My players who live in different countries*

The last time I played with my friends.... I got killed because a paladin who didnt like my character threw a dead rat at me when I had 2 hp. Death by dead rat.

When my PC died by kicking a door into 9 man firing squad, I don't feel sad or bad. Cause other players goes "Hmm whatcha say"

I remember an absolute struggle of a fight me and my friends had in dnd where a PC died, and I was the one who killed him. It was a tense moment, the boss was on his last legs and was currently gripping the downed form of the Bard that he’d just rammed though with a sword of ice. My Sorcerer could end the fight, but kill the Bard in the process, or he could prolong it and risk the TPK as basically everyone except me and the another were downed, though we had very little HP left. I remember the Bard shouting “DO IT!” At my character as I released a Fireball directly on top of both the boss and the Bard. To this day, my Sorcerer carries the guilt of killing what was essentially his best friend for the sake of saving the rest of the party.

In my favorite campaign I ever played, my character was fighting a vampire godlike being. I had been separated from my party because my character had a tendency to act way to heroic. As this vampire is kicking my ass it becomes obvious that my character made his last mistake. The vampire was bragging that my character wouldn't get to Valhalla (he was a follower of the Norse religion) because I was going to die in his realm. So this hand to hand rouge gets pissed and does the viking death chant "lo there do I see my father..." as I start to fight in what I thought was my last round. I rolled a crit and fought back pretty well. Right before the vampire lines up the killing blow. My faith was rewarded however because a champion of Valhalla felt my faith pull them to the scene and save my ass. It was a great moment

My favorite death of one of my characters was the group's paladin punching him in the face, not knowing he had only a handful of HP left, accidentally killing him, losing his class and becoming a warrior (lol), and then as last rites my group tossed the body in a moat to distract the crocodiles XD God it's been 22 years ago...

AS someone who has 21 player character deaths over the course of 7 years of RPG's, my nickname is Boromir. The most heart wrenching one has to be, Markus Ironhorn minotuar fighter big ol' drunken fool who was best friends with his human cleric. This was me and my buddies not only first long campaign it was my first character i built myself. This was 4th edition at the time. Around lvl 19 we were fighting the main antagonist at the time who had us dead to rights, we were unarmed, unarmored, and in chains. The only way we could of won the fight was if the Antagonist died and freed her minions from under her control. We had this dagger called the Dagger of Zyhir (?) which could kill a god BUT it kills the user with it. So without the party's permission i took the dagger charged the antagonist, taking 4 opp attacks, then roll to hit....Nat 20. We was amazed. But something funny happened, the shield i had been wielding since lvl 10 (about 1 year real time) started to glow. Turns out the shield that we found in an old mansion was the Shield of Bahamut. So I was allowed 1 death save. Well the lord giveth and he taketh away, nat 1. Any way more adventures happen to actually bury me,Politics am I right. But something my DM did last christmas. So we got groundhog day-ed so we had to fix time. Well guess who shows up. My Big ol' drunk and my buddies edgy elf, who died as well in the campaign, taken right before they died to help fix time. At the time of death it wasn't emotional but when he came back, well when you lose your main bro then he appears again all the man tears show up.

"Make sure players know about their mortality" Funny story... first time DM'ing but just doing it with friends. We know it's all in good fun. Second quest in and a SINGLE Orc just rolls ridiculously well versus the party, basically instantly killing 2/3 of the party members (even after I tried to fudge it in players favor... the dice refused any leniency). Player 3 successfully kills that orc, but has to watch the other 2 characters die in front of him. All of us realized this was a great character moment though, as it was a Chaotic Neutral rogue who's story was attempting to redeem themselves, and are just rolling with it. For reference on how bad the rolls were though... Player rolls nat 1 attacking the orc, the orc lands nat 20 and rolls 12+3 damage (which doubled), doing DOUBLE their max hp in damage... even after existing wounds. Supposed to be instant kill so I put a single Failure on the tick instead. *Rolls death save* *Nat 1* That was just one of the 2 players that orc killed.

*dies from slipping on a banana peel* "DesCriBE tHe DEatH CInEMatICALly"

Long may he reign..

Basically, Matt is getting this out there before he perma-kills a couple of players tonight. :P

Matt: *talks about character death* Me, on the verge of tears, imagining my PC dying

Story time: my very first time playing DnD I wasn’t told my character would be played by the DM without me when I was gone (I assumed since I was going away on vacation I’d be taken out of the game entirely) and I’d only played two sessions. Right after I’d told everyone I had to go, the DM, my best friend, messaged me the morning I was heading off on vacation “hey hope you don’t mind but your character died while I was playing them”. I said I did mind IMMENSELY and begged my friend to bring my character back because I hated the idea that I couldn’t even roleplay their death, or be present for it (or that their death wasn’t at all due to my own player choices so it felt unfair). They said they couldn’t do that because it was “the rules”. And somehow I convinced myself that I was the bad guy when I got really emotional and told them how upset this made me. I stopped being friends with them for months. And we’re friends again but I can’t remember in all the conversations if they ever admitted what they did was... pretty shitty to a new player and a close friend.

always have a character idea or two in reserve if your character dies

"The bounty hunter laid mortally injured on the ground. As his allies rushed to his aid he yelled "STOP!" and with his last breath muttered "It's High Noon after all" as he unholstered his revolver and gunned down the entire envoy of assassins." Player: "But it's the middle of the night..." Matt: "Yes, but it is always High Noon somewhere..." ( O__0)

Matt: "Maybe they use the deceased PC's name as a war cry" Me: "Why do that when u can scream their catchphrase? JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!?"

My character just died in a hostage situation. Instead of putting down their weapons and conceding defeat to the bloodied assassin holding a blade to my throat, a couple party members decided it was a good idea to try and attack him. The monk hit me multiple times instead of the assassin, who then proceeded to slit my throat. She was a cheery half-elf bard who went down reviving a dying party member, and she didn't even get any last words... I cried for hours last night. Rest easy Menyn, you're with Milil now...

I've had two of my characters die. The first one was level one, so I wasn't upset, but my Level 6 wizard actually got killed when I neglected to note an attack of opportunity. She was slain by . . . I think an undead wielding an axe. It absolutely broke my heart - UNTIL one of the guys after the fight used Breath of Life and brought her back. If you don't think character death is emotional then don't talk to me, man. I was nearly in tears.

Oh man. I remember playing d&d all the time when I was younger. More middle/high school. We had a player who always ended up dying somehow. His character would make it maybe 2 game times but then something would happen usually due to him being stupid. For example, we crossed this river in the swamp one time to get to the darkened castle beyond and we ended up in battle with some large crocodiles. With one slain and the group out of the water except for my friend who decided to try and take on the crocodile when he had plenty of time to escape. Well the crocodile grabbed his leg and at this time he was in fact trying to get out of the water. He said “it’s ok I got this” the GM asked him what he was going to do and inquired about trying to hit the crocodile with his greataxe again? My friend “no I swing the axe at my leg in hopes of chopping it off and freeing myself” we all told him that was a bad idea. But he does it and the attack ends up dealing enough damage to kill himself hahahaha omg. He always ended up in these situations.

My first roll EVER in Dungeons and Dragons was a death save. I failed. Edit: For those of you who are curious as to what happened, I will post here and in the comments. I had just joined the group as they jumped through a portal that was apparently hinted to be higher-level than them, which ended up teleporting us into a pocket dimension filled with dinosaurs (aptly called the Dino Dome by us). During the very brief discussion we had prior to entering, the barbarian took off his great axe and took out all twelve of my hit points. They stood around for a few seconds deciding whether or not to heal me as they just met me, and in that time I was asked to roll death saves as they talked. Failed the first one. Pretty sure the next one succeeded, though. Either way, the cleric healed me and we went on our merry way. However, the story does not end there. One of our players went next to a river (I, for one, was under the impression it was a glorified stream) and peered inside, and I, playing a helpful character, decided to stay nearby to make sure nothing goes wrong. The moment he got up to the river, a giant dinosaur jumped out of the water and got a surprise round on us both, mauling my friend (dropping him to zero but not dead) and one-shotting me. Died from the hit, I had 12 health and it did I think 25 damage or so. Got about two and a half hours or so out of that one, they were a good few hours though, given that we were just a bunch of high-schoolers trying very poorly to form cohesive thoughts, let alone strategize with any semblance of effectiveness. Fun group though, even with that blip. Went on to play a much better character who I believe played a somewhat major role in me figuring out my gender identity less than a year after this event. Good times, makes for fun stories.

When he was talking about giving the PC a few last words I thought it reminded me of a Fire Emblem game. And then I remembered that he's the voice of Chrom.

The tip about giving the moment of PC death appropriate weight and poignancy is excellent advice. Great advice as always Matt! -Ryan

Love this series. I'd love to see an episode on party down time. I think it's one of Matt's strengths as a GM and it's something that's rarely addressed.

Famous last words: "Hold my mead and watch this..."

my character died last session and even though it was planned it shocked me and made me cry simply because of how the DM explained it, it was kinda wild, hyped about my new character though!

One of my PC's walked straight into a darkness spell in the underdark after his friends repeatedly told him not to. He was stabbed and dragged into a drider pit, with no recoverable remains.

Don't you love that moment when you spent 2 months crafting a character and his backstory, only for the GM (who I found out likes to run deadly campaigns), insta-killed him in the first session. Not even kidding, this is what happened: "You're offered a drink in the tavern by a person you've not seen before"...."Can I insight check him, see if he's up to something?"....."Sure" (Rolls a 19 [at level 3])....."You're pretty confident that its fine, he seems friendly enough"....."Ok, I drink the drink offered to me"...."Make a consitution saving throw"...."Ok....(I'm thinking its just how well I handle my beer)...Natural 1 haha"....."Unfortunately, the drink was poisoned, and everyone watches as you fall to the floor of the tavern, dead". I don't think I've ever been more pissed in a DND game

While I havent played D&D in years now it helped me forge memories of a lifetime and friendships that exist to this day . It enriched my life so much . I was the DM of my group and over the years there were times when I was as totally shocked when a player character as the player was and often just as disappointed as our group were very close friends but we always dealt with the tragic end of a beloved character , created a new one and set the stage for a new story .

I had my PC die on the first session of a new campaign. He fell holding back a wave of goblins from overrunning the rest of the party as it fled. 3 out of 5 players cried, and still get sad when his name comes up in converstation.

The best piece of advice I've ever received regarding PC death was to let them survive whatever "killed" them, but inform their player that the character *must* die by the end of the session, so that they may choose the time and place for their death scene to be as awesome as they want. I feel that gives them enough time to cope, doesn't disrupt the party synergies in the middle of a session, and also lets the player "write the epilogue", as Matt suggests, by actual role-play, rather than just last words or posthumous narration.

So a man walks into the bar a readied axe The barkeep asks why the need of his axe in the bar The man replied "mimics" The barkeep laughed, the man laughed, the table laughed. They killed the table, it was a good time.

i've only had 1 of my characters die permanently (I had 1 that technically went to the land of the dead due to a cursed object, but that was quickly fixed by another character removing the object from my possession but the dm described my character as technically being dead for about 3 minutes) The 1 that died permanently went out like a badass. our party was essentially stuck in a groundhogs day scenario but my character messed with the bbeg in a way he didn't like and decided my character needed to removed from the simulation and ended permanently. playing a sorcerer knowing i was going to die, my dm allowed me to channel all of my spell slots available into becoming a bomb. my party became aware of my death and had to continue on (i had the leave the group due to a change in work schedule so the death was semi planned with the dm, we knew my pc needed to die within 3 sessions) that character was weird because no one knew the character's real name (including me but we won't get into that) he was a master of disguise and took on many aliases. my favorite was best Narcoleptic Sorcerer on this side of the Emerald Sea (granted there was only 1 other narcoleptic sorcerer, but still) I have been up for nearly 24 hours at this point, and I swear I had a point when I started typing. but i forgot it but don't get a chance to talk about this character ever so i'm leaving this.

After four years I decided to make a wizard for the first time, this character brought new life to our party and was a breath of fresh air since he was very cheerful and friendly. By the end of the second session, I died a hero.

My very first campaign I ever played, I was a Feylock for Oberon (I'm still really new and not 100% sure how everything works) and our Ranger's wolf got hella acid damage and we had to put it down during our camp (because none of us were healers, whoops). It was pretty sad, but my character did give a moving eulogy, blessing the dog to now "ride with the pack on the eternal hunt." I got an inspiration point, I was pretty proud!

Really!!!!??????? You put this DM tip before the fight with Thordak later today!!!????? .... Now I'm even more scared :(

I was playing a campaign that had been going on for almost a year, my character was a bard that haven’t really helped much that whole campaign. While we were fighting the final boss everyone was failing saves and on really low health but I found an opportunity, I was on 1 hp and the villain was behind me and our archer had a clean shot that would definitely kill the villain through me, I tried to move out the way and failed the roll, I looked at the player (one of my closest friends) smiled and nodded in reassure meant, the rolled a nat20. That was the first character death that everyone cried about even the dm.

This will never been seen but I've seen all of your videos and now I will be dming my group in either an evil campaign or Skyrim edition I make from scratch. Thank you for the indepth breakdowns!

Press F to pay respects. M, 2-26

I recently started my first campaign. I was incredibly excited, i gave my character, a wood elf rogue, tonnes of backstory, spent an hour figuring out a voice, spent the week before the first session preparing in any way i could. First battle, the party against 4 wolves and a dire wolf. The first wolf to attack me *one shots me*. And on the life or death saving throw, i got a *nat 1*. The dice hate me.

My character just died. It was only our fourth session, but our DM handled it wonderfully and my fellow players and I were all very much affected by it. We've been trying to come up with a group name, and one of the players suggested naming the group after my character. Watching this was actually pretty comforting, and I am a little excited to bring in my new character to the game next week!

Funny... I'm here after my first TPK Hearing Matt talks about the subjects kinda helps with the pain (I was not expecting a "death" of a make-believe character to impact me so much)

As someone said on a reply to my comment on another video of GM Tips: It takes a good player to die ingame.

had to comment, since I am often the person that dies in our campaign. Our group has become more roleplay oriented, and in doing so have actually crafted characters and backstories in a new world that we are playing in. one that our characters have lived in and been experienced. Our group brought together to stop and evil wizard from gathering crystals and charging them with the bones of ancient kings, in the hopes of releasing a devil that could end the world. We odd few, a disheartened king looking for his lost brother, a monk and rogue(a separated viking couple) hunting down the man that led a mutiny on their boat without any leads, a dwarf bloodhunter that looks for a good fight and father of a future character he plays, and myself, a self exiled Goliath on a quest to power an artifact of his tribe, committing to a pilgrimage that cpuld redeem him and lead him to see their gods (Tempest Cleric). I created Karnak Skywatcher of Clan Thuliaga, his tribe, his diety Guramesh, and his family, and what transpired briefly before his self exile. Karnak was an elderly goliath a rarety among his people, and seeking a honorable death and to complete his pilgrimage. We begin our travels, and gather a few of the crystals, discovering fantastic places, and then Karnak discovers one of the places of power, and a few members of the part follow, and after defeating a few giants gain access, power the staff partially and Karnak is happy. He's completing his journey and helping the world, he gets to be the advisor to many of the other characters, and becomes close to them. Fast forward slightly, I few weeks, and we have defeated an entire goblin and HobGoblin war camp, with Karnak calling upon the storm to aid him. and striking down foes, keeping his allies safe, we reach the place the crystal is being charged, an stop the ritual, but the evil wizard appears, wanting to see the meddlesome group that is interfering with his plans. After the villains speech, our party tries to escape, with Karnak calling a fog cloud to interfere with sight, and helping the monk viking fight the villains, and his wife running with the crystals, the Wizard teleports out of the fog, and Karnak rushes after. He sees the Wizard preparing to cast a spell aimed his allies,his friends, and decides that this will be his legacy. Karnak saying his full title, calling the Wizard a coward, and brings a bolt of lightning straight down on the Wizard and his ally. The Wizard in a rage, being attacked, and mocked releases a bolt of disintegration at Karnak who knows he has given his friends and escape chance, and chooses to take the bolt dead in the chest, knowing he cannot avoid it. Karnak dies knowing he's saved them, and gave them a chance. The party is very shocked and mournful of his death, especially the monk viking, who was becoming very close to this old goliath, decides to take up his pilgrimage, but cannot find the staff, and realizes, it must have returned to his tribe, by some magic. He leaves in the dead of night, without saying a word to anyone, but leaves a note explaining. Our party is more broken, but eventually meets a pair, a bumbling Wizard and a thief of a sorcerer. Separately our DM takes myself and my friend, and we take on the pilgrimage, with the Monk Viking, Kadal and Karnak's Daughter Vela. Vela, unknown to all, is the most disheartened, she is ready to break into a rage that only goliath know, when she finds a blade, a blade that calls to her, wanting her to seek vengeance on the man that killed her father. Together she and the Kadal, find all but 1 of the places of power, but stumble upon the group. And after a reunion with his wife, Kadal explains what has transpired. They begin traveling with the group, and we discover the last place of power has never been found because it's in a storm, a storm so large, that cities disappear when it passes. We, unsure what to do, with the storm approaching, look at the staff and see it glowing, Vela clutches it, and looks up seeing the ghost of Karnak holding the staff up amd disappearing. Following her father, she holds the staff up, and the party rises into the storm and see a giant palace. we approach and find it is home to Storm giants, and we see the largest storm giant we have ever seen, who introduces himself as the original giant, Guramesh. Vela in awe of being here, is almost in tears, and asks what they must do, amd they need to complete one more challenge, and 3 large storm giants appear and the fight begins, and the party after a hard fought, amd near lethal fight, concludes, the party is allowed to the final place of power. There they charge the staff, and Vela sees her father once again, the party sees him as well, and he tells them how proud he is of all of them, and not to mourn him, but to celebrate and to be live their lives, and complete their journey. Defeat the evil the Wizard is bringing to the land. They all say goodbye to their old friend, and they all are ready for the final battle.

when my first Character died it was brutal. like a scene from Game of thrones so quick so sudden and without any way of recovery. ( i was HOTD eaten by a dragon stealth attack esc) it was something me and the DM had thought of for a long time and was incredible watching the faces of my party and friends just in shock as i gathered my things and left the room to go and chat with the girlfriends and other halfs kids in the other room.

I wish I had seen this video yesterday Great tips my man!

or you could be like my group an reanimate the body as a zombie

My last session I had a PC die 4 times within an in game hour.

Great tips. I did indeed alert my players that player character death was in my campaign at the beginning, but regardless of that when a character finally died the attachment was that strong that the player shut down. I spoke with the player and managed a resolution he was happy with, but that reaction was scary. It really pays to not only mention that perma death is active like I did but to remind players every session or two like I didn't. Turns out the player didn't hear me the first time.

Dm here, had my group run into a beholder, the group was 4 level 10 players, a Bard, Fighter, Monk, and Barbarian. It was a long and grueling battle for them and a lot of them were at 1/2 HP. The Bard had failed their first save against an eye beam and was slammed into the ceiling with Telekinetic Ray. a few rounds later, the Bard finally passed their save and was dropped back to the ground. They were left at 42HP, the Beholder got its turn in and fired off one of its eye beams at them, the Disintegration Ray, which dealt a total of 43 damage. I was shocked, the others were shocked, the Bard was shocked. The Bard, in that turn, turned to dust. This was my first time having a player die and the others ran, they came back a few hours later and they went full tilt on the thing and smashed it into Beholder chunks. I talked to them and they were okay and they got to make a new character later, a Cleric as the group didn't have one.

Loving these tips videos but let's be real. I would watch a video of Matt reading a car manual. He'd make it interesting somehow.

Hey I wonder why this old video popped up on my feed. I'll just watch this and then finish up the second half of episode 26 of critical role.

I'm uncertain why this is showing up just now, but I'm grateful to have seen it. Good advice Herr Mercer!

Thank for this Matt

Let's start a "Last words of a cocky adventurer" list! I will go first: "I will talk to the Lady of Pain"

I still giggle about Vex's idea for a reroll named Vix if the worst is going to happen

"Tie the dead into the main narrative threat" Campaign 2 flashbacks..........

Writing this in 2019, having DMed about 5 sessions, this is fun to watch because my players were on the edge of death 3 times already XD these situations were emotional indeed, even for me beacause lethal threat wasnt intended

I am first time DMing the Mines of Phandelver with new players and the Half-Orc Monk got killed in the first dungeon. He got knocked out by a wolf and roll a fail and a Nat 1 fail for his saving throws and I forgot to mention to the new players they had potions of healing and could have helped him up. So what I did was have his group take him to Phandlin and see the Shrine of Luck to see what they could do. I basically had the qoddess Tymora or Lady Luck bring him back as her secret champion. I gave him secret orders he had to keep from his dead experience. So he is alive for now but I applied a frighten of Wolves penalty to him for the time being as a consquence of death. Not sure how other think I did on that :P

Really... I come to RU-vid to get campaign 2 episode 26 out of my head after watching it live and THIS is at the top of the recommended list?

Just had my first PC death a few weeks ago. Our wizard was standing 5ft in front navel cannon that shot explosive firebolts. His last words were "Aw crap" as the cannon fired and he then turned into red mist

My first death as a player: GM: as you lift up the heavy door using both of your hands, you see a pile of gold under it. Me: can I get it? GM: not without help otherwise you'll get crushed Me: I reach for the gold

Who's here to cope

Just can not help but express my appreciation for this series. Not much about G&S is that appealing any more, but this is great.

Relevant yet again.

Thank you Matt, and thank you molly

does this mean someone dies tonight?

I my long running DnD group I had a Dwarf cleric named Eberk. One time we had to fight a military battle focused on confronting the big bad evil guy. The encounter had just begun and I attacked one of the extras. I did some damage and so did my allies and when the time came for the enemy I was face to face with to take its turn, it rolled a natural 20. To spice up our encounters we usually play with a critical hit/failure table for extra effects and so our DM rolled the percentile die. 100. He got a perfect 100. We looked at the table as my heart sank into my stomach, it turns out a 100 is instant decapitation. So I am sitting there speechless and feeling a bit sick when one of the PCs asks what weapon the guy used to decapitate me and the Dm looked and told us that it didnt say, I was decapitated by A weapon, it could have been a butter knife for all I know. That helped raise the tension hanging over the room as we laughed but thats when my DM had an idea. To prevent any possible resurrection of Eberk, an exploding potion hit my dead body, turning it into a fine mist. Rest in Peace Eberk, you loved cheese a bit too much.

Cool video, thanks for the advice!

Great stuff!

If you die in DnD you die in real life

This is totally relevant, especially for what happened lately.

Describe their death epically “No one ever has... nor ever will... look so badass... falling down 300 flights of stairs... a true hero.” ‘*single tear runs down cheek*’

For some reason whenever a character is at deaths door and the situation is probably resulting in a death, I always sit there and shiver for the entire rest of the session. I don’t know why it happens 😂

...or you could pursue immortality as a personal goal. plenty of ways to do it in dnd. become a vampire or lich, have your consciousness placed inside a warforged or golem, make a deal with a demon lord so that you literally can not die (usually that works by providing a human sacrifice or some other dark deed and then making it so that when the player reaches zero hp their body bursts into flames and is revived somewhere else, usually a base of operations or a cult to the demon lord, and at a later time like 1d10 days), or just reach a high enough level in spellcaster to make a clone of yourself. pc's don't ever *have* to die, it just comes down to how much they want a particular character to live, and how much imagination they have for going about it.

Otherwise known as the video Matt threatens the rest of the players with if they don't take him seriously.

When the Red Viper's shantyman Old Tom Sawney died in my 7th Sea campaign, he sat on the deck looking out to sea, and sang The Parting Glass. Not a dry eye at the table. He was an NPC.

I also think that if that character had a backstory where they were trying to get revenge or save someone,the DM could bring them back as a ghost to ask the other players to complete the quest that dead character never got to complete eg. save their kingdom or get revenge. It can be a great way to create an interesting sidequest and complete the memory of that character.

And here we are

watching this back now is really depressing

“Use a deceased character member as a battlecry” FOR THE GREAT POOH

Brilliant!